SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 19, 2012 – TV programs have come to the Internet, and the Internet has gone to mobile devices. Now the Internet is coming back to TV, and savvy software engineers and smart TV producers are finding ways to create new “hybrid” services that bring it all together. New In-Stat (www.in-stat.com) research forecasts that 100 million households will actively use a hybrid service delivered to their TV set by 2016.

“The next step in the viewing experience will be for TV sets and set top boxes to permit all of the traditional TV-related services, which is then expanded and enhanced by bringing in content from the Internet, or from Internet-like web services that provide a ‘walled garden’ of authorized content and on-screen features,” says Gerry Kaufhold, Research Director. “In tandem with web-based content coming to TV screens are TV apps that use tablets or smartphones. We expect nearly 80 million households will be actively using TV apps provided by their service provider by 2016. These new hybrid approaches provide an excellent growth opportunity for TV producers.”
Some of the research findings include:

• Personal computers are still the primary display device for viewing videos from the Internet.
• North America is the early leader for hybrid TV households, but the UK, France, and Germany are coming on strong, and most of Europe will have hybrid services by 2016.
• Europe’s Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) service will begin to gain dominance by late 2013.
• Europe will become the worldwide center of excellence for long-term development of hybrid TV services.

Recent In-Stat research, The New TV Experience: TV Apps and Hybrid Services (#IN1205281TV), provides a look into the future of television and builds on recently published forecasts for TV Everywhere services, hybrid set top box deployments, and recent consumer surveys. Our research reveals the types of screens consumers are using to view content from the Internet, and includes identification and analysis of the key trends and companies that are driving the market.

Definitions and data include the following:

• Definitions for four types of TV apps delivered to tablets and smartphones, and four definitions for hybrid services delivered to TV sets
• Estimates for households using TV apps delivered to a tablet or smartphone, segmented by IPG, live TV, on-demand TV, and apps synchronized to a specific TV program
• First-ever forecasts for households expected to be using hybrid services to a TV set
• Households with pay-TV service including over-the-top offerings
• Households using connected TVs with built-in OTT apps
• Households likely to be using a TV set with full-blown open Internet browser
• Households in Western Europe actively using HbbTV services
• Companies working on hybrid services: Rovi, Arris, NDS, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Motorola, TiVO, and Jinni Media, Ltd.

This research is part of In-Stat’s Global Pay-TV service which research provides comprehensive analysis and forecasts of the worldwide market for all types of pay-TV set top boxes, the operators that deploy them and their subscriber bases.

About NPD In-Stat
NPD In-Stat’s market intelligence combines technical, market and end-user research and database models to analyze the Mobile Internet and Digital Entertainment ecosystems. Insights are derived from a deep understanding of technology impacts, nearly 30 years of history in research and consulting, and direct relationships with leading players in each of our core markets. NPD In-Stat provides its research through reports, annual subscriptions, consulting and advisory services to inform critical decisions. Technology vendors, equipment manufacturers, service providers and media companies worldwide rely on NPD In-Stat to support critical business, product and technology decisions.